Tony Award winner Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots with MAC Cosmetics, if you love Cyndi Lauper, high boots, as well as your MAC Cosmetics then Kinky Boots based on the 2005 British film of the same name now a Broadway Show is pure motivational entertainment you will totally enjoy. First the story, which is about a struggling, family-owned English shoe factory that avoids bankruptcy when its young boss, Charlie, develops a plan to produce custom fetish-type footwear for drag artists rather than the men’s dress shoes that his firm is known for. In order to save his workers from losing their source of income, Charlie partners with Lola, a drag queen, to save the business he inherited.

Toni Award nomination Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots with MAC Cosmetics

The show was nominated in the 2013 Tony Awards, this uplifting story obviously has struck a chord with critics and theater-goers alike, and just after the nominations the whole MAC team was on-hand at a MAC Cosmetics event as they provide the makeup for the show and share the ins and outs of their take on drag makeup, not to mention the perils of wearing ridiculously high Kinky Boots throughout this Broadway show.

Lead actor Billy Porter, who plays Lola in the show,

Lead actor Billy Porter, who plays Lola in the show, likes the theater to be warm to protect his voice. Combine that with a whole cast in drag makeup and you potentially have a melting makeup problem. After one of the numbers, makeup designer Randy Houston Mercer estimates that the performers’ body temperatures rise to about 103 degrees and they’re all dripping sweat. Mercer has to use some pretty heavy duty products. “We start with a primer that is sort of a barrier so it doesn’t sweat through,” Mercer said. “We use MAC Studiofix Fluid Foundation, and powder on top.”

Toni Award nomination Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots with MAC Cosmetics

Porter has his own makeup artist with so many facial makeup changes, but the other guys have become pros at doing their own makeup. Shaving is a bit of an issue, “I prefer for them to come to the theater every afternoon or evening and shave then. I’ll give them a medicated moisturizer and you need a good 15 or 20 minutes before you put the barriers [before the foundation] on or it doesn’t stay on well,” Mercer.

Toni Award nomination Cyndi Lauper’s Kinky Boots with MAC Cosmetics

“Kinky Boots,” the Cyndi Lauper musical about the unconventional rescue of a struggling English shoe factory, saw sales jump 10 percent to $1.3 million. It received 13 Tony nominations on April 30, the most of any show in 2013 and won 6 Tony Awards

Mercer was asked what was the inspiration behind his makeup looks, he was quick to respond: “I was basing it on Whitney. I was basing it on Beyoncé. I was basing it on RuPaul. I was trying a whole gamut of things to see where I wanted it to land, but I knew from the very beginning that I wanted all the angels, and Billy, to be more fashion and beauty-oriented than drag… I wanted to be more editorial.”